A Comparative Study On English And French Translations Of Chinese Political Texts From The Perspective Of The Translator's Subjectivity

With China's international communication entering a new era,the multilingual translation of Chinese political texts has become a new trend.Against this backdrop,the publication of Xi Jinping's The Governance of China ? in 8 foreign languages greatly facilitates foreign readers of different backgrounds in understanding the latest developments in China,s political wisdom and solutions.As the different language versions of the book demonstrate some differences in dealing with linguistic structure,cultural expressions,and author/reader considerations,a paralleled comparison of their respective translation strategies may enable mutual learning between the difference language translations and provide reference for future work of a similar nature.In view of the author's multilingual basis,this thesis assesses and compares the English and French translations of The Governance of China ? from the perspective of the translator's subjectivity,which is the study of translator's agency and creativity with the purpose and constraint of the translation activity taken into consideration.The study conducts the comparison in linguistic and cultural dimensions,and adopts a qualitative approach in evaluating and comparing translators'subjectivity reflected in the selected English and French examples that fall under the sub-categories-high-sounding wording,paralleled structure,terms with Chinese characteristics,to name only a few,of the two dimensions.Several suggestions are also given to improve the comparatively less perfect translations in those examples.The study finds that the English translation generally prefers "domestication" for its higher creativity in the re-establishment of cultural imagery that facilitate comprehension among the target readers.By contrast,the French translation generally prefers "foreignization" that prioritizes the maintenance of the ST's linguistic and cultural features.It is comparatively more difficult to understand,but some of its alternations are also of unneglectable aesthetic values.Translators,as the key link between authors and readers,are thus recommended to avoid absolute one-sided strategies and to find a dynamic balance of“inter-subjectivity" by combining the wisdom of both approaches,so as to enrich the target readers' culture while popularizing Chinese features.